Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988–1999), known to fans as MST3K, is a program based around ridiculing ("riffing on") bad movies set in the far away time of "next Sunday A.D.". The show follows Joel Robinson (Seasons one through five) and Mike Nelson (Seasons five through ten) as they are forced to view these movies. The movies are part of an evil experiment created by the evil Dr. Clayton Forrester. He believes that if he can discover the worst movie in the world, he can air it on television around the globe and use it to break the will of humans everywhere. Joel and Mike are two blue collar workers who become his unwitting test experiments and are shot into space to live aboard the Satellite of Love.

Once Joel arrived on the satellite, he constructed robot friends to keep him company. Gypsy, the female robot, was designed to pilot the ship. Cambot was constructed in order to tape the experiments and allow Joel to entertain the people of Earth. Joel then created Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot, two wisecracking robots to keep him company and help him retain his sanity while watching the bad movies. At some point Joel had control over when the movies started and stopped, but he used those parts of the machinery in the creation of his robot friends. The robots are the only cast members to remain throughout all ten seasons of the show.

Each episode begins with a cold opening and a short joke that has no relation to the movie about to be viewed. In the next segment, the evil villain in charge at the time introduces the bad movie that the robots will be forced to watch. In the seasons that Joel Robinson was the host, this segment was used as an invention exchange between him and Dr. Clayton Forrester.

When the villain activates the movie, an alarm goes off on the Satellite of Love and the crew members must hurry to the theater or be punished. The transition to the theater is accomplished by Cambot flying through numerous doors that open as he approaches. Once in the theater, the crew are represented by silhouettes at the bottom of the screen. The crew add one-liners and jokes to turn the bad movie they are watching into comedy. They leave the theater three times during each episode to host segments and skits.